Expedition Zero Review

Welcome to my review of Expedition Zero. This game is brought to us by developers Enigmatic Machines and publishers tinyBuild (Streets of Rogue, Party Hard). It’s available now on PC via Steam and is on offer for an introductory price of £13.94 until the 31st March 2022 where it will rise up to the original price of £15.49.

Expedition Zero is a survival action-adventure game set in the anomaly zone of the northern forest and tasks the player with revealing the secrets of the lost expedition.

Fear The Dark, Hunt, or be Hunted!

How well did I do at surviving in the ice-cold surrounds of the northern forest? Continue reading to find out. You can check out my previous game review where I played What Lies In The Multiverse on the Nintendo Switch.

The Game

We start Expedition Zero outside a cabin. What’s inside? Where do we go from here? Why are we here? I headed inside the cabin where I could hear a mysterious voice coming from somewhere inside. The voice is coming from a radio placed on a table. Answering the call results in a man giving us coordinates of the next location we must head to. Before I headed out, I searched around the cabin and discovered that we can loot resources from different objects such as refrigerators, ovens, cupboards, and more.

The resources you loot are used for the crafting system which is presented to us via a 3D printer in the cabin. However, before you can use this printer you must head to the aforementioned coordinates. Therefore we need to head outside to our sled which will then allow us to use the fast travel map.

After traveling to the new area on the map, we must be careful and avoid the spotlights that are patrolling the area ahead. This is quite a simple process, just take your time and all will be fine. Once we pass this section we meet the mysterious character who was on the radio in the cabin. He gives us a keycard as a reward for completing his request of travelling to him. This keycard opens the locked door in the cabin where we started. We can then head back to unlock the door, behind this door is our first weapon. A bolt action rifle, nice.

We also find a pry bar, which allows us to break into the aforementioned lootable objects for resources for the 3D printer. Loot effectively breaks down into three core materials, metal, polymer, and electronics. Once you have enough of these resources you’ll be able to construct items at the printers. Each printer you find will allow you to print different objects and usable items. The first allows you to print a headlamp so you can light the way ahead whilst traversing the forest areas.

All is not as simple as that though, as you read, we have a weapon. Why do we need this? Well, there are some freaky enemies lurking around in the forest, the only enemy I am going to name is only what I can call an ice zombie. A few shots to the head with the bolt action puts them to the ground for good though. There is also a very fast monster that appears from underground, causing your screen to glitch out when near. They also jump up into the trees attempting to hide from you, and your bolt action rifle. However, their red glowing eyes stand out a mile in the dark and dank forest.

Not only do you have to worry about these monsters lurking around each corner, but you also have to concentrate on your temperature and battery levels. Get too cold, you’ll eventually freeze to death. Run out of battery, your torch will no longer work. Therefore you’ll not be able to see in the dark… Bit of a huge problem when you have monsters waiting to tear you limb from limb. However, as long as you keep a stock of wood in your backpack, you’ll be able to light fires in stoves, barrels, and more. This will restore your temperature back up to normal.

Just be cautious, keep an eye on those temp and battery levels and you should be fine. Also, keep an eye on how many bullets you have, and most importantly, keep that gun fully loaded and ready at all times.

Look & Sound

The graphics are actually pretty damned good. My Razer Blade 14 had no issues running this whatsoever, but then I’d be surprised if it did. The main thing was this game appeared to be very well optimised, it ran very well at 2560×1440 (QHD) for me, it very rarely dipped below 100fps. Some of the textures are a little questionable when you’re up close, but at a distance they look just fine.

The audio in Expedition Zero is very damn creepy. Both the sound effects and music come across as very high quality too, which is fantastic for a game at this price point. As with the graphics, I did not experience any issues in the sound department. No glitching audio here. Great work Enigmatic Machines.

Length & Replayability

Being a game of the survival genre, it can last you a good chunk of time. Plus, you can replay it as much as you like just incase you miss something from the story the first time around. At present, the game does not have any Steam achievements. Some may see this as a good thing whilst others might be a little disappointed about this.

I am not the latter. Whilst I do love hunting achievements or trophies in games, it doesn’t bother me a great deal if a game does not have these. I see this as a way of focusing on the story more.

Conclusions

Expedition Zero is a great game that adds a couple of scares to the mix. Unfortunately, I have played a lot of survival games. So for me, this isn’t anything too new in the world of survival games. Don’t get me wrong it is a good game and if you’re new to the genre, you’ll love it. The setting is good, the gameplay is intense at times, the graphics and audio are what you’d expect from a triple A game, not a game by some indie devs, so kudos to Enigmatic Machines for that.

Overall it’s a pretty good game for a great asking price. I am super surprised that this is the devs debut game because of the quality of it. I give Expedition Zero a score of 7/10. Should you want to purchase the game check out the Expedition Zero Steam page.